Mistletoe
by midnightmarina
Summary: Percy is stuck under the mistletoe. Who helps him? Christmas fic; the name says it all. Percico/Pernico (Percy/Nico)


Mistletoe

"Hey, Percy!" Rachel Elizabeth Dare called. It was Christmas Eve, and Sally, Paul, and Percy were hosting a Christmas party. Sally and Paul had invited some of their co-workers and most of their friends, while Percy'd invited the rest of the seven of the prophecy—Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, and Frank—, Nico, Rachel, Reyna, Grover, and Juniper.

Percy turned around and away from his best friend, Annabeth. "Yeah?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Annabeth, behind him, scoffed fondly, turning away to go find her girlfriend, Reyna.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Come _here,_ fish breath," she said, waving him over.

Percy cocked his head slightly, but complied nevertheless; it was better to listen to Rachel first, then ask questions later. He'd learned as much when she had saved his skin back in the Labyrinth.

"Yeah?" he repeated, now standing next to her. For some odd reason, the redheaded girl beside him was smirking. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking smug.

"Well," she began, stepping back—which caused Percy to raise a questioning eyebrow—, "you see" –she took another step back– "there's this… _thing_ that I need you to do."

Percy had a look of complete and utter confusion on his face. "I…." He shook his head in bewilderment. "Okay, what's happening here?"

Rachel, who was now standing a few feet away from him, let out a breath and pressed her lips together. "Nothing," she said, albeit rather unconvincingly, making Percy narrow his eyes in suspicion.

He began to take a step forward, and suddenly found that he couldn't move; it was like his feet had been nailed to the ground. His eyes widened in surprise, then he fixed Rachel with a glare.

She only smirked, seemingly holding back giggles. "Rachel," Percy said, very clearly annoyed. "What in Poseidon's name is going _on_ here? Why can't I move?"

Rachel just pointed up and replied with, "That."

Percy's gaze followed her finger, and he realized… Oh. He rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the blush that crept up to his cheeks. "Seriously?" he asked, sounding annoyed. He was standing under the mistletoe, which, apparently, had been enchanted so that if you walked under it—be it by mistake, a trick, or on purpose—, you'd have to stay there until—Percy's blush darkened—you were kissed by somebody. _Hopefully, _Percy thought, _that person would be a certain dark-haired, pale-skinned—_

Percy started wringing his hands nervously, still rather pink. _Don't get your hopes up,_ he thought, inwardly chiding himself. He frowned at his pessimistic thoughts. _But what's to say that he won't—_

"What're you thinking, about, Percy?" Rachel asked with fake innocence. "Or, rather, _who_ are you thinking about?" She winked, making Percy's cheeks darken even more.

Percy huffed and crossed his arms, embarrassed; but he said nothing.

Rachel shook her head, feigning disappointment, making soft _tsk, tsk-_ing noises. "Looks like you'll be standing there all night, Perce," she lamented, still smirking.

Not far from Percy stood Jason Grace and Nico di Angelo. Jason was smirking, and Nico was looking down at his shoes. Nico felt Jason's gaze upon him, stiffened slightly, and looked up. "What?" he asked.

Jason just smirked and jerked his chin in Percy's general direction.

Nico felt his cheeks heat up. "Jason, I'm warning you, don't you _dare_—"

Ignoring Nico, Jason pushed Nico towards Percy, so that they were both standing awkwardly under the mistletoe.

Rachel raised an eyebrow and grinned mischievously. "No backing out now, Nico, Percy," she crowed, and the two aforementioned boys both blushed lightly due to the attention. "You're just gonna have to kiss if you want out."

Percy and Nico, still a bit red in the face, looked anywhere but each other, which was cause enough for Jason to smirk again. "C'mon, Nico, don't be shy!" he called.

Nico shot Jason a look that would've scared somebody else's pants off; alas, Jason was too smug for that. He just smiled, all friendly-like, back.

Percy took a shaky breath and gently nudged Nico's shoulder. The son of Hades looked up at him, and Percy cleared his throat and said, "Look, we might as well… uh, get it over with. They aren't going to stop, and I guess that you don't want to be stuck here all night with me, so…"

Percy was sure that he was imagining it, but he thought that he saw Nico's face fall marginally. Nico coughed, deadpan, and answered, "Um, yeah. Yeah, let's just get it over with."

They awkwardly, cautiously, moved closer and closer together, Percy leaning down a bit—Nico was still shorter than he was—, until their lips were mere centimeters apart. Percy could feel Nico's breath ghosting over his mouth, coming in sharp bursts.

Before either of them could change their mind, they both leaned forward at the same time and pressed their lips together.

It wasn't a perfect first kiss; in fact, it was quite the opposite. Their teeth clacked together, their bodies were too far apart, and it was _extremely_ awkward due to the catcalls from Rachel and Jason.

And it didn't last nearly long enough; the kiss ended almost as fast as it'd been initiated.

But Percy and Nico just grinned at each other stupidly, forgetting for the moment that neither person knew about the other's affections for them.

But that didn't last long. "So, does this mean that you two are _finally_ going to get together?" Jason asked. Rachel had moved so that he was standing next to him, looking smug.

The two boys flushed. "W-_what_?" Percy and Nico both blurted out at the same time.

Jason grinned again. "Well, you guys are pretty obvious, y'know. I mean, every time you look at each other, I swear, it's like you're about to jump each other, or something."

Grover, who at some point in time had appeared next to Rachel and Jason, added, "He's right, Perce. I mean, I know that you told me about your crush on Nic—" Percy shot the satyr a furious look, and Grover cringed. "Sorry. But… Oh, for Pan's sake, even if I _hadn't_ known about that, I would've been able to figure it out by the way that you'd been looking at him."

Nico turned to Percy slowly. "You… you had—_have_—a crush… on _me_?" he asked disbelievingly.

Percy blushed, but nodded all the same. "Y-yeah," he said.

Nico's mouth opened and closed a couple times. It seemed as if he was looking for the right words. "I…" He shook his head, then said, "You're joking, right? I mean, _you,_ have a crush on _me_?"

The look on Percy's face was that of a hurt expression. Nico's eyes widened. "Wait. You… _actually_?" the son of Hades asked.

Percy nodded sheepishly. "I mean, I just—I thought that you'd think that I was disgusting, or something, because you're, like, from the 1930s and things were different ba—"

Percy was effectively cut off by Nico's lips pressed to his.

Their second kiss was different than their first—this one was full of _meaning,_ whereas the first was an awkward peck. This one was full of passion, of desire, of wondering why they'd waited so long to do this in the first place. It was still relatively awkward, because Rachel and Jason and—was that _Grover_?—were cheering them on. Percy was sure that he heard Jason chant something that sounded like 'Percico'—whatever the hell _that_ was; Percy had no clue—somewhere in the back of his mind, but he didn't care. All he cared about at the moment was Nico, and he hoped that Nico felt the same way.

- 2 -


End file.
